After the action

The Response to the action

By the end of the day, the five activists - who have come to be known as the “Valve Turners”, two supporters, and three independent videographers were arrested and charged with multiple, significant crimes, in four local jurisdictions (Clearwater County, MN, Pembina County, ND, Chouteau County, MT, and Skagit County, WA), likely under federal coordination. Another supporter and videographer would eventually be charged as well.

As of September, 2018, three Valve Turners and one supporter have been tried and convicted on felony charges, one supporter entered into a plea bargain, and charges against four video documentarians have been dropped. One Valve Turner, Michael Foster spent six months in North Dakota prison. Valve Turners Annette Klapstein and Emily Johnston, and supporter Ben Joldersma, are scheduled for trial in Bagely, MN on October 8, 2018, where they have been granted the unusual right to offer a climate necessity defense.

This substantial law enforcement response has been insufficient for the pipeline industry, which through corporate lobbying front groups, like the American Legislative Affairs Council, is pressing for harsher legal action. An October, 2017 letter to US Attorney General Jeff Sessions, coordinated by ALEC, signed by 84 members of Congress, asked whether the Department of Justice has “taken any prosecutorial action... against those involved with the highly publicized October 11, 2016 attempted sabotage of four major crude oil pipelines in multiple states.”

Public Support

The Shut It Down action received a good deal of mainstream and social media attention, and, as part of the broader struggle against pipeline construction galvanized by the Standing Rock KXL pipeline struggle, has been galvanizing for activists. Two documentary films cover the action, produced by three videographers who were charged after the action - Steve Liptay’s Valve Turners, and The Reluctant Radical, produced by Lindsey Grayzell and Deia Schlosberg. Thousands of supporters have attended trials, organized community forums, written to incarcerated Valve Turner Michael Foster, contributed to the Shut It Down legal defense, and are now gearing up for the Minnesota climate necessity trial on October 8, 2018.

Meaning of the Action

The change in US civic discourse in the two years since the Shut It Down action is staggering. Even as the speed of climate collapse has accelerated with nearly incomprehensible speed, this single greatest challenge to the integrity of global ecosystems, and maintenance of convictions that make civilization possible, is virtually ignored. Things are far worse than two years ago, and our capacity to do anything meaningful to arrest the harm is negligible.

Facing this existential struggle to continue with confidence in the face of chaos is at the very core of what the Valve Turners intended in the Shut it Down action. In a recent post, Emily Johnston spoke of the challenge to every one of us, not just those brave enough to shut down pipelines:

“it’s such an astonishing honor to live in this moment, knowing that we probably still have the power to set the world back onto a stable path, and thereby make life better, or at least possible, for countless people and other beings. I cannot imagine anything more meaningful.”